Work trip to Rome, Italy - 9th to 11th April 2008

Lots of things seem to be happening repeatedly to me at the moment. After watching 3 games between Arsenal and Liverpool in a week (the less said about that, the better), I immediately embarked on the first of 2 separate trips to Rome, also both within a week. A 4:30am alarm call was not what I really wanted to hear, as it kicked off a very long day of getting to Rome, working, then going out.

The trip did give me my first chance to look at Terminal 5 - although at that hour of the morning, I really wasn't best placed to appreciate it. Arriving on the Heathrow Express, I was through security within 5 minutes, which was a pretty good first impression. The building itself is incredibly spacious (possibly because it is so big), very easy to navigate through, and the fact that it is all very open makes it spectacular. Once airside, the glazed wall that lets you look out over the airfield is fantastic, and I watched the sun rise over London from my gate.

My first impressions of Rome were that it seemed like a very green city, lots of plants and gardens. Of course, parts of the city are absolutely ancient, so have been kept fairly free of modern buildings. The fact that is is built on a number of pretty steep hills also helps, as there is a good deal of land that is not too easy to build on, so it is kept as green land. In many places, lots seems as if it has been the same for many, many years, which of course in some cases it has. Nothing changes too much here - many things about Italy in general are reminiscent of the way that things worked in the 80s, and Rome is no different.

For this trip, I was staying in a 5-star hotel, in a fantastic place, and truly a world class place to stay. However, it epitomised everything I hate about 5 star hotels, in being a total rip off. My room was about 260 Euros per night, for a nice room, but at the end of the day, just a hotel room (and the cheapest available in the hotel at that). That is bad enough, but having paid that amount for your room, being stung at every turn for extras really starts to annoy after a short while. Being asked to pay 8 Euros for a Coke or water from the minibar is ridiculous, and 12 Euros an hour for (not especially fast) broadband is a joke. The biggest slap in the face was that no irons are allowed in rooms (due to "fire regulations", apparently), but of course, the hotel can iron your shirt for you, for 7 Euros per shirt. All a total rip off, and hopefully the market for this kind of thing will soon punish hotels that insist on gouging their customers in such a crude and outrageous way.

My first night in Rome featured a drinks reception at the Musei Capitolini, a magnificent museum that is usually only available privately to state visits - so a real privilege. If you like old stuff, this is the place for you - 3 fantastic buildings arranged around a square, with some incredible collections of art, and Roman artefacts. Many of the rooms in the museum were also decorated with sculptures, and painted walls - it was a real pleasure to walk around such a beautiful building, especially to have so much space to explore it. The icing on the cake was a food and drinks reception on the roof, on a roof terrace overlooking Rome at night. Amazing.

The rest of the trip was a successful one - and I was really pleased to be able to do some sightseeing during my stay. On the way home (which was punctuated by a most unpleasurable trip through security at Rome airport), I was delayed by a couple of hours thanks to BA (fairly typical for a Friday night). However, the tedium was broken a little by seeing Steve Lamacq in the BA lounge and on the plane; and also Alastair Campbell and his partner. Celebrities indeed, Rome is obviously popular with famous people too!